“But remember, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword.”

Unfortunately, the only exposure I had to Percy Jackson was the first live-action movie that came out. For some reason, it took me this long to read the books, but I’m glad I finally got around to it.

Plus, with the Disney+ series coming out next year, I wanted to be caught up. It’s kind of funny that I was worried I wouldn’t get them finished by then, and I read all five in less than two months.

Header credit: Amazon

I Didn’t Want to be a Half-Blood

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson has had a rough life with constantly changing schools, dealing with dyslexia and ADHD, and an abusive step-father. Strange things have happened throughout his life that he didn’t really think twice about until something is stolen and Percy is blamed.

And so, Percy not only finds out the Greek gods and monsters exist, but he’s a half-blood, and his father is Poseidon. Being born from one of the “big three” isn’t allowed, so it puts a target on Percy’s back from the other gods and monsters alike.

He makes friends along with way, notably Grover, a satyr who was assigned to protect him, and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, who grows much closer to Percy throughout the years.

Some of the gods are friendly and like Percy. Others want him dead, and that’s because there’s a there’s a prophecy about a child of the big three either destroying or saving Olympus when they turn 16, and many believe it’s him.

I Fall Into a New Fandom

I love that each of the chapters have titles that sound ridiculous, but always end up being true in some way like chapter six in The Lightning Thief, “I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom” or chapter two of The Titan’s Curse, “The Vice Principal Gets a Missile Launcher.” I looked forward to the little preview of what was to come.

Despite these books being geared towards middle schoolers, I enjoyed them quite a lot at 28. I learned more about Greek mythology than I ever knew. However, as the books go on and Percy gets older, the threats get worse and situations get darker.

Percy is a very likable main character. He is full of sarcasm and sass, and most of the time, will stand up to the gods.

But all of the characters have likability. You immediately care about the trio in the first book and I was kind sad that over the next few books, Annabeth and Grover are separated from Percy and aren’t around as much. But a lot of new characters get introduced and I liked them just as much.

Overall

During the course of the books, everyone grows in some way. Percy not only becomes stronger in the physical sense but wiser while still feeling like himself.

My only, only gripe would be there are a lot of half-bloods that I wish I got to know better so that later on the books, I care about them when shit goes down, but when Percy goes on 50 different quests (not really) throughout the years, you don’t spend as much time with the characters who aren’t also on the quest.

But I highly recommend reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians, no matter your age. The lessons throughout the books can resonate with all ages. Like I said, I do wish I got to read these when I was younger.

So, if I had to rank the books, from my personal favorite to least, even though I like all of them:

• The Last Olympian (5)
• The Titan’s Curse (3)
• The Battle of the Labyrinth (4)
• The Lightning Thief (1)
• The Sea of Monsters (2)

And for the whole series

I’ve already started The Lost Hero as of posting this, so I plan on reading the rest of the books set in this universe as I patiently wait for the show to come out. I also used to do book versus movie posts, so I may re-visit the movies. I’m going to regret that I’m sure.

But these were the perfect books for me to read at the moment while I’m still dealing with some mental health stuff. Reading about children going through their own traumas.

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